Bee keeping under ‘Mission on Integrated Development of Horticulture’ and ‘National Mission for Beekeeping’, Empower Rural India, Income Tax Day
1. Bee keeping under 'Mission on Integrated Development of Horticulture' and 'National Mission for Beekeeping'
- Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shri Narendra Singh Tomar inaugurated the ‘World Class State of Art Honey Testing Laboratory’ established by National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in Anand (Gujarat) with support of National Bee Board (NBB).
- The Government is committed towards increasing the income of farmers and the Bee-keeping enterprise has to play a major role in supplementing the income of farmers.
- The Ministry has taken up several activities to promote bee keeping under ‘Mission on Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH)’ ‘National Mission for Beekeeping’ being implemented through National Bee Board and the States.
- There is a need to focus on imparting training on scientific bee-keeping and production of high value honey and honey-bee products and creating awareness among farmers, bee-keepers and land less labourers about the scope and potential of bee-keeping enterprise as an additional source of income to them.
- The Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare has approved the National Bee Keeping and Honey Mission (NBHM) for a period of 2 years.
- In view of the vision of Prime Minister for development of Gaon, Garib and Kisan, the bee-keeping enterprise would bring change in the livelihood of farmers and rural poor leading to sustainable agriculture development.
- The PM vision is to bring sweet revolution in the country by encouraging large number of famers for production and marketing of Honey and earn more profit in agriculture.
- Moreover, the adulteration is a major problem in honey production and honey is being adulterated with high fructose corn syrup or rice, tapioca, sugarcane and beet syrup that are cheaper and resemble honey in physico-chemical properties.
- Hence, the establishment of Honey Testing Laboratory will help for quality production of honey and its export to other countries.
- Further, suggested that to promote the cultivation of flora based crops to enhance the production of honey & honey bee products.
- Based on the parameters notified by FSSAI, the NDDB has set-up this world class lab with all the facilities and developed the test methods/protocols, which have been accredited by National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL).
- FSSAI has now notified new standards of Honey, Bee Wax and Royal Jelly.
- The Union Agriculture Minister also inaugurated ‘Two Days Online Training Programme on Scientific Honey-bee Production’ being conducted by National Dairying Development Board (NDDB) and extended compliments to the trainees for their participation in the said programme.
2. Empower Rural India by bringing all Post Office Savings schemes to their doorsteps
- In order to strengthen its network and postal operations in rural areas and provide facility of small savings scheme to the vast majority in villages.
- The Department of Posts has now extended all small savings schemes upto the Branch Post Office level.
- There are 1,31,113 Branch Post Offices functioning in the rural areas.
- Apart from facilities of letters, Speed Post, Parcels, electronic money order, Rural Postal Life Insurance, these Branch Post Offices had been providing Post Office Savings Account, Recurring Deposit, Time Deposit and Sukanya Samriddhi Account schemes till now.
- The new order has allowed Branch Post Offices to offer facilities of Public Provident Fund, Monthly Income Scheme, National Savings Certificate, Kisan Vikas Patra and Senior Citizen Savings Schemes also.
- People living in villages will now be able to get the same Post Office Savings Bank facilities which people in urban areas have been availing.
- They will be able to deposit their savings into these popular schemes through the post office in their village itself.
- This is another step taken by the Department to empower Rural India by bringing all Post Office Savings schemes to their doorsteps.
3. 160th anniversary of Income Tax Day
- The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and all its field offices across India today observed the 160th anniversary of Income Tax Day.
- Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman appreciated the continuous efforts of the Income-Tax Department towards making the tax administration taxpayer-friendly, transparent and geared towards facilitating voluntary compliance.
- She recognised the paradigm shift in its role in recent years, from being just a revenue collecting organisation to becoming a more citizen-centric organisation.
- She cited various reform measures undertaken, including, inter alia, the introduction of a new, simpler tax regime, reduced corporate tax rates as also payment of tax at concessional rates for domestic manufacturing companies, which will pave the way for an ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat’.
- The Income-Tax Department for being responsive to the needs of the taxpayers during this pandemic time by relaxing various compliance requirements and addressing the liquidity concerns of the taxpayers that not only would the Department continue to play a critical role in the growth of the nation, but will also strive to keep improving and set new standards of professionalism.
- While recognising that a tax department has to navigate a delicate balance between enforcement and service, he appreciated the Department for having increasingly oriented itself towards becoming taxpayer-service centric without compromising its enforcement role by deploying non-intrusive tools of data-mining and data analytics.
- Also recognised the measures adopted by the Income-Tax Department for imparting transparency to its processes and eliminating scope for unwarranted use of discretionary powers as demonstrated by new initiatives like faceless assessment, improved form 26AS, pre-filled returns etc.
- That hoped the Department would keep up the momentum and continue to improve its taxpayer services in the coming months.
4. Under KVIC’s Kumhar Sashaktikaran Yojana
- To empower and associate the marginalised potters community with India’s quest to become “Aatmanirbhar”, the Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah distributed 100 electric potter wheels to 100 trained artisans under the Kumhar Sashaktikaran Yojana of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC).
- The Kumhar Sashaktikaran Yojana initiative would go a long way in strengthening the marginalised potters community by incorporating technology to improve productivity while also reviving the traditional art of pottery.
- The distribution of electric chaak is a gift from our Prime Minister to the people of Gujarat.
- This will make their lives easier and also increase their production capacity.
- Strengthening the traditional art of the country is the dream and everyone should contribute with their skill-sets to make India Aatmanirbhar.
- Also the potters assured that the arrangements will be provided for selling of their products, including tie-up with the Railways and proper marketing channels.
- The efforts of KVIC in providing sustainable employment opportunities to the weaker sections through its schemes.
- “Kumhar Sashaktikaran Yojana” is one such step towards making the potters community “Aatmanirbhar”.
- In Gandhinagar district, KVIC has trained 100 potters from 14 villages and distributed 100 electric potter wheels and 10 blunger machines.
- It may be noted that several regions of Gujarat, particularly Kutch and Saurashtra, are well-known for the traditional pottery art.
- Since the launch of Kumhar Sashaktikaran Yojana in 2018, the KVIC has trained nearly 750 potters from different villages in Gujarat.
- This has eliminated drudgery from the process of pottery making and also resulted in increasing the production and higher income of potters by 3-4 times.
- The average income of potters under the Kumhar Sashaktikaran Yojana has gone up from nearly Rs 3,000 per month to nearly Rs 12,000 per month.
- More than 17,000 electric chaaks have so far been distributed across the country benefiting nearly 70,000 people of the potters community.
- This has impacted the lives of potters in a big way.
- With electric chaaks, the production of clay items has increased by manifold.
- At present, nearly 2 crore kulhars are made every day across the country.
- Potters are successfully selling these kulhars at 400 railway stations which is a perfect marketing platform for them.
